The present invention relates to glove donning. In particular, the present invention relates to towels used by surgeons or other medical practitioners after scrubbing, and prior to gowning/dressing up, and their methods of use.
Medical personnel such as doctors, nurses, paramedics and the like, frequently use natural rubber gloves to protect their patients and themselves from potential bacteriological or viral contamination during medical procedures. Prior to the donning of such gloves, medical personnel disinfect their hands by thoroughly scrubbing and rinsing them under hot water, and in some circumstances, with antiseptic/antimicrobial agents, as part of hand/forearm antisepsis. Towels are used to dry the hands after washing, but the hands remain somewhat damp, even though the towel has removed most of the water.
Donning of rubber gloves can be difficult even when the hands are dry. However, dampness of the hands increases the coefficient of friction between the gloves and the hands, making donning even more difficult. To aid in the donning of disposable gloves, donning agents (i.e., powders) are commonly used so that the gloves will go on to a hand easily without tearing, or causing much inconvenience. Such donning agents are usually incorporated on the inside surfaces of the disposable gloves, that is, the surface of the glove in contact with the user""s skin. Alternatively, such donning agents are directly applied to the hands of the medical personnel just prior to glove donning. The direct application of such donning agents to the hands adds an additional and inconvenient step to the donning routine before a medical procedure. More importantly, such powders used in disposable gloves can be irritating and tend to dry the skin. In some instances, such powder (as in the case of starches) can lead to infections or allergic reactions (such as granuloma and problems with airisilization of protein) for the wearer of such gloves, or the recipient of the medical care, if such powder finds its way into an open wound.
Due to the hazards associated with powder, powder free glove technology has been developed. Generally, there have been two main powder-free solutions for disposable gloves. The first is a halogenation treatment, such as chlorination of natural rubber or other polymeric gloves. Such a step helps reduce the coefficient of friction of the gloves on the skin. However, chlorination also reduces tackiness of the outer surfaces of the glove, which decreases some of the tactile functionality that medical personnel desire in a glove. Such a treatment can also reduce the shelf-life of the gloves. Furthermore, chlorination of the gloves adds an additional, often nonuniform, and potentially hazardous step to the glove manufacturing process.
The second powder-free solution is the addition of a layer of synthetic polymers to the inner surfaces of the gloves during manufacture. Such synthetic polymers often include polyurethanes or other hydrophilic lubricious materials, such as silicone and surfactants. Such a treatment is an additional step in the manufacture of gloves, and application of an acceptable uniformity of such chemical treatments is an ongoing issue.
Therefore, there is a need for a method of donning gloves that can be conveniently, efficiently and effectively used by a wearer of rubber gloves, that will aid in the donning of such gloves after the hands are washed, and which avoids the sometimes nonuniform addition of substances to gloves during the glove manufacturing process. There is also a need for an article/delivery system which assists in the donning of gloves and which overcomes the issues previously described.
A substrate includes a flexible substantially planar sheet of at least one layer. The layer has a front side and a back side with a donning agent associated with at least one side of the sheet. The donning agent is transferable from the sheet to an object or individual apart from the sheet.
As an alternative, the donning agent is either a wetting agent, a substance that acts as a wetting agent, or a silicone. In one embodiment, such substrate is made from a nonwoven reinforced material.
In an alternative embodiment, the previously donned gloves are contacted with the substrate to facilitate donning of a second set of gloves over the first set of gloves.